Thursday, 30 August 2007

Its true, I don't need a man because.......... wait for it............Oh Yeah BABY, I have rented a rug doctor!!!!!!!!!! Its amazing, I can't stop cleaning all two of my carpets in my other wise wooden house, which means they are a little wet now, still, thats the small price you have pay for addiction.

The evidence of my drinking and debortury has vanished, no longer will people wince at the red wine stains on my cream carpet.

Who was the stupid person who invented 1. carpets, and 2. cream ones and 3. put them in my house??? Nothing remains cream around me for longer than about ten minutes, especially when I've had a glass of wine and I am animated!

Man, it was so therapeutic this morning watching my minging carpet come up nice and bright, I have to confess that hoovering is something I actually like doing, when I was a kid, (eek, hope mum doesn't ready this one,) and my mum asked me to do some hoovering, I would sprinkle flour on the dark green carpet and marvel at how our noisy bright yellow hoover used to suck it all up, anyway that should probably going in one of those lists of weird things about me.

So Dimitrious and Sophie have nearly moved in, and so much for my early night, their last trip was about 2.20am, and I forgot to give them a key, so I stayed up and worked my but off for well, allot of hours, sorted tonnes of things out and filed lots of stuff in my new filing cabinet.

I have to ask, and don't be mad at me if you hate this programme, but how blimin good is big brother this year? I love all the characters, whats wonderful about them is that they are not a complete mess, and big brother has implemented some amazing psychological tactics, I have to be honest, some which I am not sure are particularly ethical, but that they can get away with because the house mates are relatively sound. My psychological job is working on ways to reduce prejudice, but the foundations of that research is group processes and attitudes, which all come into play in BB, so I just find it so wonderfully exciting to watch. Come on, who do you think is gonna win huh? I reckon the twins will!!!!

Wednesday, 29 August 2007

Yep, believe it or not, there is actually yarn content in this post today. I have updated the shop you can see most of them in the new arrivals. These are two of my favourites from this batch.

Silk in September

Bluefaced leicester in hannahs summer.

I was up till 1 this morning working, which actually is becoming the norm now, feeling mildly anxious because I have a tonne of stuff to do for fibrefest at the weekend, still, I am very excited, it is the first year of the show its set in beautiful grounds etc, so it should be a scream, not only that but I will take all my winter designs to finish off seeing as they need to be done for the autumn. I was so tired this morning I drank instant coffee because I couldn't be bothered to make the proper one, thats really bad for me seeing as I think that 'instant' and 'coffee' shouldn't be allowed in the same sentane, I need to go to bed early tonight or i'll start loosing the plot.

Also if you send me photos to go in the gallery, they need to be as an attatchment, sometime people send me flickr pics, but obviously I can't use those, I've updated the gallery with few more pics, I think my favourite one has to be this, I met this lovely lady at Allypally and in Paris, and she even bought me some french biscuits which was so sweet, anyway, she is a phenomenal knitter and I want to show you this:

Its knitted in a huge skein of white mohair laceweight. Stunning!!!!

And finaly, a new pattern made for scrumptious by Katherine from K1 yarns, I totally love this jumper, I am thinking about making it from some hand dyed scrumtious, perhaps in a sandy colour, seeing as it was inspired by the beach, anyone who would like something similar let me know. :-)

Tuesday, 28 August 2007

I learnt three valuable lessons this bank holiday and they are as follows:

1. Golf is fricken hard, it looks very very easy, but infact getting the stick to actually come into contact with the ball takes alot of skill, which apparently I don't have.

2. It is not appropriate to wear a very short dress to a driving range for the following reasons:

a) it makes picking up golf balls impossible without putting off the all male golfers

b) no one takes you seriously,

c) people pay way to much attention to your golfing strategy.

3. Apparently when you get to 30 (and this is according to my mother) I am;

a) soon to be over the hill if I don't hurry up.

b) its not appropriate to wear thin linen trousers with thongs on, its just not done when you get to nearly 30, well mum, I would like to remind you that I am 29 for about another 6 months, so I shall make sure I wear thongs and linen trousers all bloody winter before I am to old.

Thursday, 23 August 2007

That time of year is approaching. The one where I basically have a house full of my wonderful friends from all over the world. I have 2 main rules for people coming to live in my house, 1. they teach me to cook something traditional, be it Japanese, Spanish or from Yorkshire, and 2. They learn to knit, or at least have a go.

I hadn't realised but I have been living on my own rattling around in my little house for 9 months now, and I was a little worried that I had got used to living on my own and it might be a little bit odd for me when the hoards arrived. But I am well and truly excited, and when I say hoards I am not joking, heres the plan.

Marco my beloved Italian friend arrives from Milan tomorrow and is coming for the weekend, then Dimitrious and Sophie ( Greek and french respectively) arrive Wednesday for a month, Carmenthita (Spanish) arrives to live permanently on the 10th of Sept, Marchin ( polish) arrives at the beginning of Oct to work in the uni for 4 months and then sole (Spanish and marchins girlfriend) arrives on the 10th of October also for 4 months. So if you want to come and stay I am afraid it will have to be on the sofa! OK?!

My main reason for being excited is that we are all very good friends, and to be honest it will be 4 months of partying, generally always a couple of large dinners a week, and just all the wonderful cooking and laughter and fun that we have. We all take it in turns to cook gorgeous food, and its a wonderful way to ease me into the winter. In addition, sole knits, and carmenthita will too, and Sophie expressed that she wants to learn, of course the obvious advantage is that they have access to the fyberspates stock, I think I might get away with never cooking again with a little trading. LOL!!!

I will blog alot about it and take a tonne of pics, cause I want to document it for myself really, mainly because last Oct - Dec was such a special time in my life, I will never ever forget it, and I know the next 4 months will provide me with very very special memories that I will cherish forever. :-) OH, and I'll publish the recipes if anyone is interested?

PS shop is due a rather much needed update later, its been a little neglected, but I have some dyed fibres and yarns etc.

Tuesday, 21 August 2007

I get asked at least a couple of times a week if I will ever sell cashmere. No, has always been the answer because before today as I couldn't get it made in the UK.

From now on the answer will be YES!!!!!!!!

I have now managed to get some cashmere yarns spun in the UK! Not only that but the fibres are also processed here, which means I know it will be processed with out any harm to the environment and the people who live around it. I'm starting with a few trial yarns, a lace and some sock weight, these will be available for wholesale too, so watch this space. Its taken alot of work and effort to get this so I am extremely excited about it, I hope you will be too.

Ps I also have managed to source some gorgeous silks spun in Europe, more soon.

Thursday, 16 August 2007

So I posted a post this morning about being sad because its my three year wedding anniversary but not actually kind of married any more, then I got over it and read it this afternoon and thought yuk!, shut up with your muchy moaning and deal with it, lol.

Wednesday, 15 August 2007

Right, all the sock wieght cygnet has gone, but I do have some DK left in white, if anyone is interested, its 100% superwash merino, white in balls, it takes the dye like a dream, same price as last time, its £10 a pack plus £2 postage.

I also have rather alot of coloured cygnet sock yarn as well, its 25% nylon, 75% merino (superwash) I think I was going to make kits from it, but its not really in the scope of what I do any more, its £1.50 for 50gms, or £10 for a pack of 10 50gm balls, i have it in lots of colours, pine greens, pinks, mauves and reds, and blue and black I'll check tonight, sorry, still havent got laptop so no pics. its perfect for fairailse work especially if you combine it with a hand dyed yarn.

Thats all, trying desperately to clear space for house organisation, becuase from the 1st of sep I have 3 lodgers arriving, and there are various people coming inbetween as well, so it will be madness, so in order that I am organised and stay on top of everything I need to shift some old stock.

Oh and have been analysing results from knitting experiment today, seeing as its pretty much finished, but have a little problem because knitters are a little bit more motivated to try harder than the control group which was mainly students, and it shows, so its mildly annoying. Still, we'll see what happens.

This weather is so odd, I came to work in the pouring rain in jeans and sandles because I don't have any shoes, how weird is that? I actually don't have any shoes, I haven't bought any for about 3 years and my red kickers have big holes in the bottom. Perhaps its time for some new green kickers, as they are my favourite, OOOOOHHHHH, maybe I can find something kind of cute and ethical!!!!!! does anyone have any good ideas for ethical shoes? if you do leave a comment, I would love to know, seeing as I am trying my hardest to wean my way off of evil multi national corporations. xx

Tuesday, 14 August 2007

Some of you may occasionally get the impression from my blog writing, that I am a bit of a princess. Hence why Sole calls me princi, *sigh* I suppose I am when it suits me. Andy, if you dare leave a comment to that effect you'll be in serious trouble. I never used to be, I think its the hair that did it, you can get away with murder when you have blonde hair and flutter your eyelashes a little. Mwhahahahahahahaha. I can't actually remember what my point was now.

So day 6 of no laptop, I decided to stop screaming last night and look to the world beyond my laptop, yes, apparently there is one, a very interesting world, which perhaps I should spend more time in because I get a wholelot more work done in it. So much so, that once it comes back it will only be switched on between 10 and 5, and a couple of hours on the weekend. I packed a tonne of orders, did some knitting, and nearly finished a new design for some kits, and had a lovely relaxing evening. A side effect I never thought would happen, and I consider this a negative side effect, was one of excessive cleaning, normally I get up from my laptop, look at the washing up, think hmm, I should do that, then think oh I just need to check my emials..... and forget the washing up. However last night I did all the washing up, looked in my cupboards and felt embarassed because not only were they a mess but the shelves need cleaning and I needed to sort out all the teas, I also discovered that I have a ghastly habit of saving ramekins from little deserts, I now have a collection of about 20, wasting space, but I can't actually bear to part with them; Just incase I have a soufle party.....it could happen!!!!!! I even cleaned and polished the rings on my cooker, the urge just took me, what can I say, apart from the fact that I am mildy disturbed.

I had better mention something wooly hadn't I! Anyone coming along to fibrefest in devon? I'll do a proper post about that soon.

Right I need to go and find a spoon for my raspberry jelly, seeeing as I nearly choked because I was sucking it out of the plastic tub.

Sunday, 12 August 2007

Remember I accidentally spilled tea on my laptop and then had to dry it on the radiator? Well. I finally got it picked up and its being fixed because I no shift key, not to mention other things, so glad I purchased accidental insurance, I am such a clutz. Anyway will try to do a proper blog tomorrow lunch time at work, and fingers crossed the laptop will be back soon, because I'm getting withdrawal. ;-)

Wednesday, 8 August 2007

I think I live in a comedy most of the time, and I'm sure I get it from my mother.

Last week whilst lying in bed because she couldn't hardly move, she was telling me that everytime she walked and got a spasm, she fell over because she couldn't keep herself up, which I was very worried about, mainly because I've worked on a brain injury unit, and am obsessed about people hitting their heads. So I told her she should be wearing a crash helmet which she thought was hilarious, and I consequently renamed her 'Mrs Twit' because she said she could walk bent over with two walking sticks. She was telling me comic stories of what had happened whilst she was lyeing on the floor, not able to get up, whilst Olive the cat had caught a mouse which was she was chasing around my mum at the same time. So despite a rather awful situation, we were laughing our heads of. Anyway, she insisted that she wanted to take a short walk every hour, I said OK but she had to text me when she made it back to bed, so thats what she did. About three oclock in the afternoon, I get a phonecall of of her, with a yelp of 'help, help' which completely panicked me, and then she proceeded to laugh for about 10 minutes, she thought it was hilarious, I could have killed her for messing about at the beginning, but it was very funny, and a typical joke from my mum. And I realised we are alike, I live in a comedy too, probably a good way of coping I think.

I was sat organising and labelling yarn about 5.30 this afternoon and was thinking that I was sure there was something happening tonight, then I remembered that I have two people coming to stay from the university about 6.30, I don't know them, but I offered to rent them a room for a couple of nights whilst they look for accomodation for when they start a job with my boss.

Shock horrow, my house is a complete tip, but its ok because all the linen is washed, so after hoovering for about an hour because there is so much fluff around, I finally put the clean linen on the bed, but to my dismay, not only is it not ironed, as I don't believe in ironing, there was loads of fluff, my washing machine must be well fluffed up. I was panicking now, it looked minging, then I had the bright idea of defluffing with packing tape, and my goodness it worked a treat, that quilt cover might be crinkled, but its fluff and sparkle free, god knows where the sparkles come from, I swear I'll be burried with them. I shoved all the crap in the cupboards, must remember not to open them ever again. And walked to the door with a hand full of fluffy tape and welcomed my guests with open arms, especially seeing as they bought me two bottles of vino.

So I was laughing to myself thinking about how I love to make a comedy out of everything, just like my mum does, and the worse it is, the more I laugh. Lol, so there, just thought I'd share that little story.

Tuesday, 7 August 2007

I just saved the last lot of my yarn from the unbelievable pouring rain, damp it may be, but orders are finished, yipeeeeeeeeeeeeee. I can't believe it, I'm very chuffed, there are 6 wholesale orderS drying ready to go. So really I should be at work now, but seeing as I kind of have to give my car back now, and the mileage is at its limit I have to walk everywhere, but its a good excuse to eat cake, um I digress, so I should be a work but I'm waiting for the rain to stop, so instead I decided spaghetti hoops on toast and mugs of tea were in order, ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

I got a new camera yesterday, well actually I needed to give the one I've been using back, so I bought the same one i'd been using because its so fab, its an Olympus E400, its gorgeous and works so well with closeups. I'll do a photo of my latest project and one of the piles of yarn around here if I can fit it in. hehe

Thursday, 2 August 2007

I woke up at 6.30 to the sound of wrapping rain in my loft roof, oh what a lovely sound. Then screamed as I realised all my books were in the garden from yesterday.

So I'm sat here bleary eyed, and wet, with books on the radiator, they are fine, I caught them just in time, it was only my todo book which I was worried about seeing as my whole list of jobs is in there, and my life would fall apart with out it.

Anyway, I'm going back to bed with a cuppa and some knitting, afterall I am still kind of on holiday this week, so I will spend just an hour pretending I don't have a million orders to do, and that my busniness doesn't rule my life.

Guess that was a good call making the shed ready for dyeing, just had a little feeling in my water that this good weather wouldn't last for long.

Yours, drenched.

jen

ps is anyone else having hoorendous problems with the post office, I think Im starting to loose my mind with them. And read post below about cheap yarn for dyeing.

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH I don't believe it, some of the things I was going to tell you about prato and human right stuff, radio 4 have done a programme on it, how amazing, tell you i'm in tune with the universe this week, you should be able to listen to it again, I should clarify, that the main thing that upset me was simply that peoples human rights were being violated in the factories, that was my main concern, I don't particualrly have a view on the immigration or globalisation aspect of it.

Wednesday, 1 August 2007

OMG, just spent the day doing a massive stock take to see what on earth is in the boxes in my shed, and get it ready for some serious dyeing so the rain doesn't hinder me. In addition the hourds arrive in sept again like last year, I don't think they are gonna tolerate my dyeing in the kitchen any more.

Anyway, to my delight there are some yummy yarns in there, some gorgeous superwash merino, and some bfl nylon, which is so lovely and soft, so i'll try and get those dyed this week, I'll keep slowly updating the shop as I go in the next couple of days so keep an eye out, there are already a few treats on there like some new 2ply Alpaca lace I have had made, and dyed yesterday yummmmmmmmy.

OH yeah, point of the post, hehe, my first dyeing used cygnet yarn, in white, its a lovely soft superwash merino blend on 50gm balls unfortunately I don't have time to put the balls into hanks now, but it takes the dye lovely you just need to wind it into hanks for dyeing first, anyway, I found a load left over so I need to get rid of it to make space, so if anyone would like any, its 10 pounds for 10 balls of 50gms and 2 pounds for postage. Email me at fyberspatesATbtinternetDOTcom